....and then California.

First some backround info. Mike is the second child of Merle and Kathryn Jacobson. But they go by Jake and Kitty. I mean if your name was Merle Omar, wouldn't you choose a nick name also? I agree. Mike has 1 older brother, 5 younger sisters, and 2 younger brothers. He is the second of nine. The order is Kevin(37), Mike(35 basically, his b-day is Dec. 12), Michelle(33), Katie(32), Kim(29), Melissa(26), Kristin(24), Matthew(21), and Kyle(15). Now there is a little bit of a guide so if I mention someone you can refer to this list! :)

Anyhoo, Matthew came home from the Texas Fort Worth Mission on November 26th. Yeah!! We have not seen him in 2 years. I got pregnant with Mikayla 2 weeks after he left. So he had never seen Mikayla except in pictures. So we left Utah on Tuesday the 25th, planned to spend the night at the California state line and make it the Ontario airport in time for his flight to come in at 12:20. It was a command performance by Kitty that EVERYONE had to be there to see him of the plane. So we were all there to see him come down to the baggage claim. It was fun. Kitty bought all her grandkids "cowboy" hats for them to wear. They were supposed to yell "Yee-haw!" when they saw him, but you know that this did not happen because they are kids and forgot when they saw him. He hugged Kitty first. And it took him a while to hug everyone else. But it was sweet and good to see him. My kids were way excited and had made signs for him to see.

Matthew when he got off the plane and got closer to the "mob" waiting to see him.


Matthew and Mikayla meeting for the first time. She was not sure about him but she did not cry!

The next day was Thanksgiving. We ate dinner at Jake and Kitty's and had dessert at my parents' house. Becky, Greg, their kids, Mike, Nikki, their kids, my Aunt Ellen, Uncle Larry, Sarah, Hayden, their baby, Greg's parents, and my parents were there. It was good and a lot of fun to see them. Sarah and Hayden's baby, Emily, is getting so big!! She's over 12 pounds now. Not bad considering she was just over 4 pounds starting out in life. She has tripled her birth weight in 4 months! I will post some pics of her another time. She is so cute!

The day after Thanksgiving we did not go shopping. Instead we went to SeaWorld. We were very lucky to have one of Mike's suppliers give us free tickets for our whole family! And the coolest thing is that when you bought day passes they automatically converted to season passes for the entire year of 2009! We live in Utah and have season passes for our entire family for the year of 2009! Very cool!! The kids were thrilled because they had never been there and I hadn't either from what I could remember. We went with Mike's sister, Michelle, and her family. Michelle's husband, Jason, and her kids, Kaylee and Austin, were great. They showed us around and told us what we should see. We also met up with Mike's brother, Kevin, and his family about lunch time. So it was a group of 6 adults and 12 kids! We had a blast and the kids loved spending the day with their cousins.

After we left SeaWorld, Michelle and Jason suggested that we go for dinner at a place in downtown San Diego called Dick's Last Stand. It was a hoot! They gave you cloth napkins to use for your dinner because the dispensers of paper napkins that are on the table are used to throw at people! Seriously!! You have paper napkins fights with any one that you see! It was crazy and so much fun! I mean, who would not have fun when you can have a paper napkins fight during dinner!

Saturday was spent at my parents house. But late in the afternoon we met up with Mike's family for family pictures. Then we had dinner back at my Mom and Dad's with Becky, Greg, Mike, Nikki, Sarah, Hayden, and all their kids.

Sunday we went to Mike's parents ward to hear Matthew report his mission. He did a very good job and it was great to hear some of his experiences in Texas. We left right after Sacrament Meeting because we had to get home. We drove home all in one day on Sunday. We were planning to drive home on Monday but Mike's boss said he had to be there for a meeting Monday morning so home we went.

Monica seeing the dolphins. She also petted them too with Uncle Jason's help!

The kids with their cousins, Kaylee and Austin. Austin is easy to pick out because he was the only boy in this picture! They are such great kids! We love them!

The Beluga whales (or at least one of them). I thought they were the coolest animals there. Sure the polar bear, the penquins, sharks, killer whales, and dolphins were cool. But I loved these!! They way that they move through the water is amazing!

I will post some more pictures later! There was a lot more!